The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-02-04
THE STUDY OF Ait.
PICTURE OF GIRL STUDENTS LIFE
IN A PARIS ATELIER.
WOrk-A Pleasant Bit of Student Life.
Sunday Afternoons-Not Unfeminized.

What One of Their Number Says of Their
Work-A Pleasant Bit of Student Life.
Sunday Afternoons-Not Unfeminized.
Better than any words of mine is what one
of these girl students says herself IN some
notes which | asked her to make for ne III
addition to the sketches made by another 9irl
at the same atelier. give them just as they
are:
"For any girls coming to study art i'll Paris
to live we do in quiet hotel, is far better
and more economical than to board with
French family or pension, unless with a wish
to master the language. Nothing can be
more simple than our habits. We have one
8 room, and we descend to table dhOte when
we chOOse-nOt otherwise. We cook our own
breakfast over a spirit lamp at a. m and &C
straight to the ateIier, where we work till =,
Then de euneT at a crenerie and work again
till ) p. m Returning to our hotel we cao
dine if we like, but more often we boil ON
kettle, have tea and an egg, and spend She
evening over book 1t sounds rather
monotOnous life, yet we all find it very at
tTactive, and the weeks slip by only too fast.
even the regular morning walk is pleas
ant. At the hour the Quarter Latin is filed
with street sellers wheeling their stalls about,
housewives marketing in their white caps,
and little children in black pinafOres mot
white ones being taken to school by their
bonnie or garcon. Streams of men, too en-
their way to business, newspaper in one
hand and roll in the other, imply that hard
working Paris is waking up to its daily life.
STUDY OF CHARACTER.
"Our atelier gives US every opportunity for
the study of character In daily work to-
gether most peoples natures are clearly dis
played There is the elderly spinster, pre-
vented from study i'll her youth, and always
envying the younger students who have their
life before them. Beside her is a patient
artist who has been toiling for years without
making any visible progress but who still
hopes to succeed one day. Another, equally
Woodworking, with her whole soul in her
work, scorns such thing as outward ap-
pearance, and her dress, once aesthetic, looks
like a worn out robe de chambre slowly
melting into a bundle of rags. But few
who combine the love of fashion with the
love of art comes here in costumes more
suited to the Champs ElySeeS than our
crowded studio, where they are in serious
danger of rubbing against pallets knocking
down easels, etc.
"COmpaniOnship is of the pleasantest
bits of student life. Our frugal tea parties,
when the hostess boils the kettle and sets the
table, and we all sit round the fire and dis
cuss the last exhibition, especially our own
one of us in getting into the salon, which is
held as a universal triumph to all. CONVEX
satiOn never flags, for some of us have lived
at the ends of the earth, and can describe
them WELL and others are political spirits who
belong to a debating society, and wish to re
construct the world after their pattern,
which the rest gOOd-naturedly but resOlutely
disapprOve. Then where to spend our Sun
day afternoons is always an important con
cid w Iy-oy IF
town by road or rail, and after six days
spent in the atelier, its close atmosphere reek-
ing with oil and turpentine, the smells, sights
and sounds of the country are only too de-
lightful.
INTERESTED IN WORK.
'Such are our pleasures; but, after all, the
most interesting thing is our work. Every
Monday we have the excitement Of posing the
new model. We begin enthusiastically, but
Tuesday after the professor has criticised our
drawings, our spirits usually sink little
Lower still they get Wednesday and Thurs
day; by Friday, when the second professor
comes, they are usually down at zero Satur-
day finds us in deepest despair, only comfort
ed by the resolution TO do better next week.
and that day is generally devoted to water
colors, or pen and ink sketches, or portraits
of some picturesque fellow student, usually
kept as a souvenir when the time for leaving
the atelier comes, and the girls who have been
working together all winter go their several |
ways, to meet again-when and where, who
knows. Probably never"
But still they have done good work, poor
girls! and mingled it with great deal of IL
nocent enjoyment. And though Paris l., !
most viii agree, not a desirable place for
girl to study in alone, still necessity has &c
law, and in community is much safety. Then |
young students seem to go through the ordeal |
Ilnscathed, and, so far as [ could judge, with !
out being unfeminized. For they are work |
ingwomen, and, they honestly say, have |
''no time" for anything but work. 1t is idle |
ness which breeds the follies, or worse than
follies, of many young people, teaching then
to substitute Irritation for love, and the GRAY
ing for mere admiration instead of that sell
devotedness which, however sad, is, at leas
more noble than the selfish vanity of CO..
ouering beauty. The busy life of a woTllin.
woman may harden her little, but it VI
never degrade or deteTi0rat5 her.-HaIpe3
Bazaar.